Authentication alerts

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are provided for generating alerts in association with a request to open an account for an individual. For example, information identifying an individual may be received from a financial entity in association with the financial entity receiving a request to open an account for the individual from a requesting entity. The requesting entity may be a vendor or service provider associated with the financial entity. An electronic notification may then be sent to the individual, which may include a selectable option to indicate that the individual does not authorize opening of the account. In response to receiving an indication that the individual does not authorize opening of the account, notifications may be sent to both the financial entity and the requesting entity indicating that the individual has not authorized opening of the account.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/524,920, filed Jun. 15, 2012, which claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 61/497,826, filed Jun. 16, 2011, U.S. provisional application No. 61/504,955, filed Jul. 6, 2011, and U.S. provisional application No. 61/540,654, filed Sep. 29, 2011, the disclosure of which is each hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND Field

Among other things, this disclosure describes systems and methods for providing an alert to an individual when an entity requests to authenticate the individual, such as when the entity is opening an account for the individual.

Description of the Related Art

When an individual has been a victim of identity theft, there is often a significant time delay between the unauthorized use of the individual's identity occurring and the individual becoming aware of the unauthorized use. Identity theft can occur, for example, when someone uses an individual's personal identifying information, without the individual's authorization, in order to perpetrate fraud or other offenses, such as obtaining loans, services, credit and/or opening an account of some kind in the individual's name. The individual's personal identifying information may include, for example, name, Social Security number, credit card number, address, telephone number, date of birth, driver's license or passport number.

Consumers are often advised to periodically monitor their credit reports in order to be aware of inquiries that may potentially be unauthorized or associated with identity fraud. However, there may be substantial delay between the time that an identity authentication request was received and the time that information becomes available on a credit report. While some systems automatically monitor credit reports for information that may be associated with fraudulent requests for credit data or account open transactions, such systems are not able to identify such transactions as they are occurring or to stop such transactions before completion.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure generally relates to providing an alert to an individual in association with a request to open an account in the individual's name, as well as providing notification to one or more entities associated with the request of potential fraud. For example, in some embodiments, information identifying an individual may be received from a financial entity in association with the financial entity receiving a request to open an account for the individual from a requesting entity. The requesting entity may be, in some embodiments, a vendor or service provider for which the financial entity maintains accounts, such as credit accounts. An electronic notification may then be sent to the individual, which may include an option for the individual to indicate that the individual does not authorize opening of the account. In response to receiving an indication that the individual does not authorize opening of the account, notifications may be sent to both the financial entity and the requesting entity indicating that the individual has not authorized opening of the account.

For purposes of this summary, certain aspects, advantages, and novel features of the invention are described herein. It is to be understood that not necessarily all such advantages may be achieved in accordance with any particular embodiment of the invention. Thus, for example, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention may be embodied or carried out in a manner that achieves one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other advantages as may be taught or suggested herein.

In some embodiments, an alert module, as described herein, may receive, from a financial entity, information identifying an individual. The information identifying the individual may be received in association with the financial entity receiving a request to open an account for the individual from a requesting entity. The requesting entity may be a vendor or service provider associated with the financial entity. The alert module may then retrieve contact information associated with the individual from one or more data stores. The alert module may send an electronic notification to the individual based at least in part on the retrieved contact information. The alert module may then receive an indication that the individual has indicated that the individual does not authorize opening of the account. In response to receiving the indication, the alert module may provide a first notification to the financial entity and provide a second notification to the requesting entity, where the first notification and the second notification each indicate that the individual has not authorized opening of the account.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a sample high-level flow of events in an alert system, according to certain embodiments.

FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrates a computing device, such as a mobile phone, that receives alerts in the form of text messages.

FIG. 3 illustrates an alert delivery device in communication with various systems, including an authentication alert provider and credit alert provider.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a method for providing an authentication alert to an individual.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a method for receiving and responding to an authentication alert on a consumer's device.

FIG. 6 is an illustrative representation of a table associating financial institutions with vendors and/or service providers, along with corresponding contact information.

FIG. 7 illustrates one embodiment of a system that implements aspects of the present disclosure, such as providing alerts to an individual, and notifying one or more entities when an individual has not authorized an account opening.

These and other features will now be described with reference to the drawings summarized above. The drawings and the associated descriptions are provided to illustrate certain embodiments and not to limit the scope of the invention. Throughout the drawings, reference numbers may be re-used to indicate correspondence between referenced elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments of systems, methods, processes, and data structures will now be described with reference to the drawings. Variations to the systems, methods, processes, and data structures that represent other embodiments will also be described.

According to certain embodiments, an alert system, which may include an alert delivery device, may provide an alert to an individual when the individual's identity is used in association with a request to open an account. For example, an alert delivery device, as disclosed herein, may provide an alert to a device associated with the individual when identification information associated with the individual is included in a request associated with a new account opening by a third-party, such as a financial institution. In some embodiments, the financial institution may be, for example, a bank or credit card issuer that maintains credit accounts for individuals on behalf of a separate entity, such as a vendor or service provider. In some embodiments, the alert delivery device may determine both the financial institution and the underlying requesting entity, such as a vendor or service provider, based on information associated with an account opening request. The alert delivery device may provide an alert to the individual that includes an option for the individual to indicate that the request is not authorized. When the alert delivery device receives an indication from the individual that the request was not authorized, the alert delivery device may send notification of the unauthorized request to the financial institution and/or the associated requesting entity. In some embodiments, the notification may be provided to the requesting entity quickly enough that a fraudster purporting to be the individual may be detained or arrested at the location where identity fraud occurred.

In some embodiments, an alert system as described herein may include an enrollment component. For example, the enrollment component may be offered via a monitoring service that enrolls consumers in an identity monitoring service. In some embodiments, an alert provider may have a relationship with a credit bureau, authentication provider, or other service, such that certain requests that are received by the credit bureau or authentication provider are sent to the alert provider prior to being processed by the credit bureau or authentication provider. Furthermore, in some embodiments the alert provider may be an intermediary that receives authentication requests or other requests associated with an account opening directly from requesting entities or financial institutions and transmits the requests to one or more credit bureaus, authentication providers, or other services after (or concurrently with) extraction of information regarding a consumer identified in the request and initiation of alert transmission to the consumer.

In some embodiments, alerts may be generated very quickly (e.g., in real-time or substantially in real-time) after a request associated with an account opening or other triggering event occurs. For example, alerts may be transmitted to an individual within seconds of the triggering event occurring. Similarly, notifications indicating that the individual has indicated that a transaction is not authorized may be transmitted to a requesting entity and/or a financial institution in real-time or substantially in real-time after a response is received from the individual. In other embodiments, notifications or alerts to individuals, requesting entities and/or financial institutions may be transmitted in batches, where the batch processing may occur every N seconds, minutes, hours, or other period.

In some embodiments, identity information that may be included in an authentication request or other request analyzed by an alert delivery device may broadly include various types of data associated with an individual. Examples that may be considered identity information, in some embodiments, include name, address, telephone number, email address, social security number, etc. Although the description provided herein refers to individuals, consumers, or customers, the terms “user,” “individual,” “consumer,” and “customer” may, according to some embodiments, include groups of individuals, such as, for example, married couples or domestic partners, organizations, groups, and business entities.

An authentication request may generally refer to a request to authenticate an individual's identity based at least in part on one or more pieces of identification information. In some embodiments, an authentication request may be a part of an account opening transaction or request. For example, when an entity initiates a process to open a new credit account or other account for an individual, the entity may first attempt to authenticate the individual. The entity may subsequently request credit data associated with the individual as a part of the account opening process. In other embodiments, an entity may open an account for an individual by requesting to authenticate the individual without requesting credit data associated with the individual. In other embodiments, the entity may open an account for the individual by submitting a credit data request without a separate authentication request. As will be appreciated, examples described herein with reference to authentication requests may also be applicable to requests for credit data and/or other types of requests associated with the opening of an account, line of credit, or other transaction. Examples of account types that may be associated with a request to open a new account may include, for example, a mortgage, a revolving loan, a credit card, financial services, utilities, leasing, renting, television service, telephone service, and/or other types of credit or non-credit accounts.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a sample high-level flow of events in an alert system, according to certain embodiments. As shown in FIG. 1, an individual applies for an account with a vendor or service provider 102. For purposes of example, the individual applying for the account may be a fraudster asserting the identity of Ms. Jane Smith. The fraudster may be attempting to open a credit account, for example, in the name of Ms. Smith with a vendor 102, such as a department store. As will be appreciated, the vendor or service provider could be any of a number of business types involved in opening accounts for consumers, including credit accounts and/or non-credit accounts. The accounts of the vendor may be maintained by a financial institution 104, such as a bank or credit card company, on behalf of the vendor. Accordingly, as illustrated, the vendor may send account request information to the financial institution, which may include information identifying Ms. Smith, as provided to the vendor by the fraudster purporting to be Ms. Smith. The financial institution may then request authentication of the person presenting herself as Ms. Smith. Depending on the embodiment, one or more authentication providers may be accessed in order to authenticate the individual presenting the identity of Ms. Smith. In the illustrated example, an authentication request is sent to authentication provider 170A, which may be, for example, an identity data validation service that authenticates an individual based on the types of data provided and the extent to which the data matches known information about the individual. In the illustrated example, an authentication request is also sent to authentication provider 170B, which may be an out of wallet question service that asks someone purporting to be a given individual one or more questions regarding data that is not easily accessible to people other than the identified individual. As will be appreciated, authentication requests and/or other requests associated with an account opening may additionally or alternatively be received by entities other than an authentication provider, such as a credit bureau, for example.

Next, in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, one or more authentication providers or other recipients of the authentication request or account open request may provide indication(s) of the request to an alert device 110 for delivering a real-time authentication alert or other alert to the individual identified in the authentication request. The alert delivery device may be associated with an alert system, which may actually be multiple systems operated by multiple entities. In other embodiments, the alert delivery device may be operated by an authentication provider, a credit bureau, or other entity that initially receives the authentication request from the financial institution.

In some embodiments, the alert delivery device 110 may retrieve information from an entity relationship data store 112 in order to determine the requesting entity and/or other details regarding the request. For example, as discussed in more detail below, the entity relationship data store may include data associating a number of financial institutions with one or more venders or service providers for which the financial institution services or maintains accounts. Accordingly, such data may be used by the alert delivery device 112 to determine the underlying vendor or service provider (such as the department store, in the given example) associated with the financial institution's authentication request. The entity relationship data store may include contact information for the financial institution and/or the vendor 102 (e.g., the requesting entity).

The alert delivery device 110 may, in some embodiments, de-dupe, parse, and/or re-phrase the alerts or notifications received from the authentication provider(s) and/or other entities. For example, multiple alerts may be received by the alert delivery device for the same consumer activity, such as when multiple alert providers may transmit alerts to the alert delivery device. The alert delivery device may parse and/or re-phrase the alert to make it user friendly. For example, the alert delivery device may correlate information included in the alert, such as alert type, with a particular alert message. Additionally, different alert messages or formats may be accessed depending on the delivery medium, such as e-mail, software application, SMS, voice, etc.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, an alert or notification indicating that an individual is attempting to open a new credit account or other account in the name of Ms. Smith is sent by the alert delivery device 110 to one or more devices associated with Ms. Smith, such as consumer computing device 130A and consumer computing device 130B. The alert delivery device 110 may determine contact information and/or contact preferences for Ms. Smith based on, for example, information that Ms. Smith provided when enrolling in a monitoring service or alert service. The one or more alerts may be provided in various manners, and may depend in part on the device type. For example, alerts may be delivered, in some embodiments, via one or more of e-mail, text message, phone call, an online portal that is accessible to alert members (e.g., a credit monitoring or identity protection website), printed digests, mobile applications, etc.

In certain embodiments, the alert may include one or more options that Ms. Smith may select in order to indicate whether she authorizes the request (indicating, for example, that she is the individual that has presented her identification information to the vendor or service provider in association with the account opening request), or to indicate that she does not approve or authorize the request (indicating, for example, that she may be the potential victim of identity fraud in association with the account opening or other request). In some embodiments, the alert may include a time and date associated with the request, and/or location information regarding the source of the request.

In the embodiment of FIG. 1, Ms. Smith does not recognize the application for new credit and, thus, would like to prevent the application from being further processed. Accordingly, Ms. Smith may provide an indication back to the alert delivery device 110 (or other device associated with an alert system) that the individual presenting Ms. Smith's identity information is not actually her. The alert system may then implement one or more responsive actions in order to prevent harm to Ms. Smith's identity, stop the account open transaction, and/or initiate detainment or apprehension of the fraudster at the vendor's location. In some embodiments, the alert system may be operated in a closed-loop manner, such that a default action of approval or denial occurs if the consumer does not respond to an alert within a certain time period. For example, the requesting entity may wait a predetermined time (e.g., a customizable time between 15 seconds to 10 minutes) after requesting authentication before proceeding with the account opening transaction. This provides the consumer with time to respond to the request in order to stop the transaction from occurring in the event that the consumer isn't the person associated with the authentication request or account opening. In other embodiments, the authentication request may be processed in parallel with any review of the alert by the consumer, where the authentication request and/or account opening process may be halted if the consumer responds to the alert indicating that the request is not authorized. The determination of the time period to wait after transmitting an authentication alert or whether an affirmative response is required prior to proceeding with a transaction may be determined, for example, by agreement between the requesting entity (e.g., vendors and service providers) and the operator of the alert system. In other embodiments, a vendor may not complete the account opening unless and until an authentication response is received indicating that the identity provided by the person requesting the account opening belongs to that person. Thus, different vendors can have different preferences for proceeding with actions, such as account opening actions, in response to receiving or not receiving authentication responses, possibly within predetermined time periods. Accordingly, a first vendor may complete opening of an account 10 minutes after an authentication request is transmitted and no response is received, while a second vendor may cancel opening an account if a response is not received within 10 minutes of the authentication request being transmitted. Depending on the embodiment, vendors may have different preferences based on the risk level associated with the particular account offered by the vendor.

According to some embodiments, the alert delivery device 110, or other device associated with an alert system, may initiate cancellation of the application process, such that the fraudster cannot complete the application process using Ms. Smith's identity. For example, the alert system, either directly or via authentication providers 170A and 170B, may send an alert or indication to the financial institution 104 resolving the authentication as failed and/or notifying of potential fraud. The alert system may additionally or alternatively send a notification of fraud to the vendor 102, such as using contact information retrieved from the entity relationship data store 112 or included in the alert received from the financial institution or an authentication provider. In some embodiments, the notification to the vendor may be provided to a phone number, e-mail address or device associated with security personnel at the vendor's location, such that the security personnel may attempt to detain the fraudster at the location where the fraudster presented Ms. Smith's identity. Alternatively or additionally, other actions may be performed by the alert system in order to reduce harm to Ms. Smith's identity.

The alerts to consumers may include detailed information regarding the requesting entity. For example, rather than simply indicating the name of a chain store from which an authentication request was received, in some embodiments the alerts may include the particular store location (e.g., city, state, street address, web address, etc.) and possibly even a particular computing device (e.g., IP address, geo-location, etc.) from which the request was originated. Having more detailed information regarding the requesting entity allows the consumer to better determine whether there is potential identity fraud. Additionally, the detailed information may allow the alert system to communicate more directly to those at the requesting entity that are involved in the transaction. For example, a response indicating fraudulent use of a consumer's identity may be transmitted directly to a POS terminal in a large retail chain store in order to decrease the risk of the retail chain store continuing with the transaction requested by the fraudster.

FIG. 2A illustrates a computing device, such as a mobile phone, that receives alerts from the alert system in the form of text messages. In this embodiment, the consumer is provided with the ability to respond to the alert in real-time so that the reply can be communicated to the requesting entity to possibly prevent fraudulent use of the consumer's identity. In the embodiment illustrated, the consumer may respond by selecting links provided in the text messages. In another embodiment, the user may respond by sending a response to the received text message, such as “Stop” if the user would like the transaction to be halted. In other embodiments, alerts may be received and responded to via a stand-alone application that may be authorized to provide real-time push alerts to the user's mobile device.

As illustrated, the user first receives a text message 210 that notifies the user that an authentication request associated with the user's identity was received from ABC Market in San Diego. The user may select option 212 to indicate that the user is indeed involved in the transaction. Alternatively, the user may select option 214 to indicate that the user is not involved in the transaction. In the illustrated example, the user has selected option 214 (also illustrated as option 222) to indicate to the alert delivery device that the user is not involved in the transaction and does not authorize the authentication request. As noted in responsive message 224 sent by the alert delivery device, the alert system has notified the requesting entity (e.g., ABC Market in the illustrated example) that the user has not authorized the request.

FIG. 2B illustrates another example of a computing device, such as a mobile phone, that receives alerts from the alert system in the form of text messages. As illustrated, the alert system initially sends a message 240 that indicates that a request to open an account using the user's identity was received from XYZ Capital. The user may select option 212 to confirm that the user was involved in this account opening request, or option 214 to indicate that the user was not involved in this account opening request. As illustrated by messages 222, the user may indicate that the user was not involved in the transaction, similar to the example discussed above with reference to FIG. 2A. The user may, for example, not recognize the name “XYZ Capital,” and therefore select option 214. In response, the alert system may, in some embodiments, determine additional information regarding the underlying requesting entity (such as a vendor or service provider) associated with XYZ Capital. For example, the alert system may receive the additional information from XYZ Capital, or may retrieve the information from a data store, such as entity relationship data store 112. The alert system may then send message 230 to the user, which identifies “Bob's Department Store” in San Diego as the requesting entity associated with the authentication request ultimately submitted by XYZ Capital. XYZ Capital may be, for example, the financial institution that issues department store credit cards for Bob's Department Store. If the user now recognizes the request (such as because the user did not previously know that XYZ Capital issues credit cards for Bob's Department Store) and did in fact authorize this request, the user may select option 232. While FIG. 2B illustrates an embodiment in which the requesting entity is identified in a follow-up alert, in other embodiments, the requesting entity may be identified in the initial alert to the user. In other embodiments, the user may specifically request further information regarding the requesting entity, such as by selecting a link in a text message or bottom in a stand-alone application requesting further information regarding the requesting entity

FIG. 3 illustrates an alert delivery device 110 in communication with various systems, according to one embodiment. As illustrated, the various systems are in communication via network 160, which may be one or more of a LAN, WAN, and/or the Internet, for example. As illustrated, the alert delivery device 110 is in communication with consumer computing devices 130A, 130B and 130C. The consumer computing devices may be, for example, devices to which the alert delivery device delivers alerts, such as in connection with the consumers' enrollment in an identity monitoring, credit monitoring, or other monitoring or alert system. The alert delivery device 110 may receive authentication request notifications from authentication alert providers 170A and/or 170B, which may provide the basis for the alert delivery device to generate and deliver an alert to a consumer device. Alternatively or additionally, the alert delivery device may receive notification of a request for credit data for a given consumer from a credit alert provider 175 or a credit bureau 120, which may be a basis for an alert to be delivered to the consumer, in some embodiments. In other embodiments, the alert delivery device may receive authentication requests directly from financial institution 104, vendor 102 or vendor 103 (which may be the requesting entity associated with the authentication request). As discussed above, in response to a consumer indicating that the consumer does not authorize a given request identified in an alert, the alert delivery device may notify the financial institution 104 and the requesting entity, such as vendor 102 or vendor 103. As will be appreciated, the alert delivery device may be in communication with a number of other alert providers, vendors, service providers, and consumer devices not illustrated in FIG. 3.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a method for providing an authentication alert to an individual. The illustrative method may be implemented by an alert delivery device, such as alert delivery device 110, which may be associated with an alert system that includes one or more computing devices. In some embodiments, the alert delivery device may include an alert module (discussed below with reference to FIG. 7) that implements the method illustrated in FIG. 4. The illustrative method begins at block 402, where the alert module receives identification information associated with a particular consumer from an entity, such as a financial institution. As discussed above, the financial institution may be submitting an authentication request identifying the consumer based on a request submitted to the financial institution by a vendor or service provider associated with the financial institution. The request may be associated, for example, with a transaction to open an account on behalf of the vendor or service provider. As used in the illustrated example, the underlying vendor or service provider that submitted the initial request to the financial institution will be referred to as the requesting entity. In other embodiments, the alert module may receive notification of the authentication request from an entity other than the financial entity, such as an authentication alert provider, credit bureau or other entity.

Once the alert module receives the consumer's identification information associated with the authentication request, the method proceeds to block 404, where the alert module accesses information associated with the identified consumer to identify contact information for the consumer. For example, the alert module may retrieve contact information from one or more data stores based on a determined match between the consumer identification information included in the authentication request and contact information associated with a number of different consumers. The consumer information may be stored, for example, based on the consumers' enrollment in a monitoring service, and/or based on personal data stored in association with another credit or non-credit related service. In some embodiment, the alert module may determine a confidence score based on the amount and/or type of information matched, such that the alert module only determines a given consumer to be a match for the authentication request data if the confidence score exceeds a certain threshold. The contact information retrieved may include, for example, one or more of an e-mail address, phone number, address, IP address, a user account name associated with enrollment in a monitoring service, etc.

At block 405, the alert module may, in some embodiments, retrieve entity association information to determine the requesting entity (such as a particular merchant, vendor or account provider) associated with the financial institution. For example, as discussed above, the alert module may retrieve data from one or more data stores that associates each of a number of different financial entities with one or more requesting entities with which the given financial entity is associated. Such association data is described with more detail below with reference to FIG. 6. In this manner, the alert module may provide the consumer with the specific underlying requesting entity (which may include a specific merchant or store location) in order for the consumer to better determine if the authentication request was authorized or fraudulent.

At block 406, the alert module transmits a notification or alert to the consumer using one or more delivery mediums according to the contact information retrieved at block 404. For example, the alert may be delivered via e-mail, within a software application, an online portal or website, SMS text message, voice call, etc. In some embodiments, the delivery method may be selected based on preferences previously provided by the consumer. In embodiments in which the alert module operates in a closed-loop manner, the alert module may determine at block 408 whether a response time limit has elapsed since sending the alert to the consumer. The response time limit may be, for example, a certain number of seconds or minutes that the consumer has to respond before the alert module will take a default action of confirming or denying the authentication request. In the illustrated embodiments, the default action is to proceed to block 412 associated with confirming the authentiction request. In other embodiments, the default action upon time expiring may be to not authenticate the consumer. In some embodiments, the alert module may not have a time limit, such that the alert module will take no action until or unless the consumer responds. In other embodiments, the alert module may send an indication that the consumer has not responded within the time limit, leaving the decision to the financial institution and/or requesting entity regarding how to proceed.

In the illustrated embodiment, if the alert module receives feedback from the consumer at block 410 indicating that the person submitting the consumer's information to the requesting entity is not in fact the consumer, the method proceeds to block 414 where the alert module may transmit an alert to the requesting entity, financial entity, and/or other entity associated with the request indicating that the request should be denied and/or that the consumer's identity may have been fraudulently used. If the consumer instead indicates that the consumer authorized the request, the method proceeds to block 412, where the alert module transmits a confirmation to the requesting entity and/or the financial institution that the account opening process may continue and/or that the authentication request is approved. In other embodiments, the alert module may only send notifications to the requesting entity in the case of potential fraud. As discussed above, the notification to the requesting entity may be provided in real-time or near-real time, such that the account open transaction can be stopped before it is completed and a fraudster purporting to be the consumer may potentially be stopped and detained by security or police.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a method for receiving and responding to an authentication alert on a consumer's device. Aspects of FIG. 5 have been described above with reference to the illustrative text messages of FIG. 2B. The illustrative method begins at block 502, where the consumer device receives notification from an alert provider (which may be delivered via an alert module, as described above) that includes options to confirm or deny that an individual requesting to open an account with a requesting entity is in fact the consumer. At block 504, the consumer's device determines whether a response time limit has elapsed. If the time has elapsed, the consumer's device may send an authentication confirmation to the alert provider at block 508. In other embodiments, the determination of whether time has elapsed may be made by the alert provider without a response being sent by the consumer's device. In other embodiments, there might not be a time limit in place.

If the consumer selects a “confirm” option in association with the alert at block 506, the illustrative method proceeds to block 508, where the consumer's device transmits an authentication confirmation to the alert provider. If the consumer selects a “deny” option at block 508, the illustrative method proceeds to block 510, where the consumer's device transmits an authentication denial notification to the alert provider. In some embodiments, the method may then proceed to block 512, in which the consumer's device may receive a follow-up notification from the alert provider or financial institution providing additional details (such as the name of the requesting entity), with an option to confirm, such as message 230 described above with reference to FIG. 2B.

FIG. 6 is an illustrative representation of a table 600 associating financial institutions with vendors and/or service providers, along with corresponding contact information for at least a subset of the financial institutions, vendors and service providers. The data represented in illustrative table 600 may be stored in one or more data stores accessible to the alert delivery device 110, such as entity relationship data store 112. The data may be determined and stored, for example, based on information provided by each financial institution to the alert system, either in bulk prior to sending individual authentication requests or in a piecemeal fashion as authentication requests or other requests are processed by the alert system. In some embodiments, when the alert system receives indications of authentication requests, the alert system may consult the data in table 600 to automatically determine the requesting entity associated with the request by matching data included in the request with data previously stored in table 600. In this manner, the alert system may quickly provide an alert to the consumer that includes additional information (such as the identity of the requesting entity) that was not necessarily included in the authentication request itself, and may quickly contact the requesting entity directly in the event of fraudulent use of the consumer's identity.

As illustrated in table 600, row 602 includes a financial entity identifier (“AM-BANK”) associated with the financial institution “American Bank.” In some embodiments, the identifier may be included in authentication requests from American Bank without any other indication of the identity of the financial institution, such that table 600 enables the alert system to determine the full, consumer-recognizable entity name corresponding to the “AM-BANK” identifier. Row 602 additionally includes two different vendors or service providers for which American Bank maintains accounts, such as credit accounts. The vendors are identified as “ABL Cable Co.” and “Quality Cellular Phones,” which have been assigned vendor identifiers 552034 and 431, respectively. The vendor identifiers may be assigned by the financial entity, the alert system, or may be absent in certain embodiments. In some embodiments, the authentication requests from the financial entities may include the vendor identifier associated with the requesting entity, such that the alert system can determine the name and contact information of the requesting entity by matching the vendor identifier in the request with data in table 600. As indicated in rows 602, 604 and 606, the stored data associated with each vendor or service provider includes contact information, which may include multiple forms of contact information for a single vendor, such as one or more e-mail addresses and/or phone numbers. The stored information may also include contact information for the financial institution. As illustrated in row 604, the table 600 may include financial institutions associated with multiple locations of a given chain store, such as Bob's Department Store (with separate identifiers for the West L.A. store location and the San Diego store location). As illustrated in the contact information for the different locations of Bob's Department Store, the table 600 includes phone numbers for store security personnel at the individual store locations. Accordingly, the alert system may be able to contact the store security to potentially apprehend a fraudster at the location where the fraud attempt occurred, such as within seconds or minutes of the fraudster submitting an application for an account.

Additional Examples

According to some embodiments, an alert system as described herein may have access to the location of a consumer via geolocation data of a consumer mobile device. For example, a consumer may authorize the alert system to receive geolocation data from a mobile device of the consumer (either via a push or pull architecture). Such geolocation data may be compared to information in authentication requests (or other requests) in order to better determine whether the consumer identified in the authentication request is the person dealing with the requesting entity. For example, the alert system may receive an authentication request from a business in Boston, Mass. for a consumer named Bartholomew Beedy. The alert system may access account information for Mr. Beedy to determine that Mr. Beedy has authorized the alert system to access geolocation data of a cell phone used by Mr. Beedy. The alert system may access the geolocation data of Mr. Beedy and determine that Mr. Beedy's location data was updated 5 minutes prior from Fresno, Calif. Thus, the alert system may determine, based on the discrepancy between the location of the transaction and the location of Mr. Beedy, that there is a high likelihood that the individual providing Mr. Beedy's information to the business in Boston, Mass. is not actually Mr. Beedy.

In one embodiment, an alert system as described herein may transmit a confirmation code, such as an alphanumerical code, bar code, or other code, to a device of the consumer and to the requesting entity. In this embodiment, the requesting entity may be required to match a confirmation code provided by the consumer to the confirmation code received from the alert system prior to proceeding with a requested transaction, such as a transaction to open an account with the requesting entity.

In some embodiments, the consumer that receives an alert may be presented with options for resolving a potentially fraudulent use of the consumer's personal information. In one embodiment, the consumer is presented with contact information for the requesting entity so that the consumer can contact the requesting entity directly. In one embodiment, the consumer is provided an option to have an alert provider take care of the fraudulent use of the consumer's identity. Depending on the embodiment, such a service by the alert provider may be offered at no cost or at a fixed or variable cost (e.g., based on how difficult it is to resolve the issue). For example, a consumer may receive an alert asking the consumer to confirm or deny whether the consumer is entering a transaction with Big Bank in Pasadena, Calif. The alert may provide options to confirm that the consumer is entering a transaction with Big Bank or deny that the consumer is entering a transaction with Big Bank and either (1) receive contact information for resolving the issue and/or (2) pay a small fee (e.g., $20-$100) to have the alert provider contact Big Bank and possibly other entities involved in the transaction to resolve the issue. As noted above, in some embodiments the consumer's reply to the alert may be communicated to the requesting entity (e.g., Big Bank) in real-time such that, if the transaction is fraudulent, the transaction may be prevented from completing, thus saving the consumer the trouble of resolving an actual transaction.

Example System Architecture

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating an example configuration for providing alerts to an individual, and notifying one or more entities when an individual has not authorized an account opening, according to certain embodiments. In the illustrated embodiment, a computing system 700, which includes an alert module 750, is in communication with a network 160 and various systems are also in communication with the network 160. The computing system 700 may be used to implement systems and methods described herein. For example, the computing system 700 may be associated with an alert delivery service that provides alerts to a user and sends notifications regarding unauthorized authentication requests to a financial institution and/or requesting entity. Alternatively, an authentication provider, credit bureau, identity monitoring service or credit monitoring service may each include a computing system similar to that of FIG. 7.

The computing system 700 includes, for example, a personal computer that is IBM, Macintosh, or Linux/Unix compatible or a server or workstation. In one embodiment, the computing system 700 comprises a server, a laptop computer, a cell phone, a personal digital assistant, a kiosk, or an audio player, for example. In one embodiment, the exemplary computing system 700 includes one or more central processing unit (“CPU”) 705, which may each include a conventional or proprietary microprocessor. The computing system 700 further includes one or more memory 730, such as random access memory (“RAM”) for temporary storage of information, one or more read only memory (“ROM”) for permanent storage of information, and one or more mass storage device 720, such as a hard drive, diskette, solid state drive, or optical media storage device. Typically, the modules of the computing system 700 are connected to the computer using a standard based bus system 780. In different embodiments, the standard based bus system could be implemented in Peripheral Component Interconnect (“PCI”), Microchannel, Small Computer System Interface (“SCSI”), Industrial Standard Architecture (“ISA”) and Extended ISA (“EISA”) architectures, for example. In addition, the functionality provided for in the components and modules of computing system 700 may be combined into fewer components and modules or further separated into additional components and modules.

The computing system 700 is generally controlled and coordinated by operating system software, such as Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server, Unix, Linux, SunOS, Solaris, or other compatible operating systems. In Macintosh systems, the operating system may be any available operating system, such as MAC OS X. In other embodiments, the computing system 700 may be controlled by a proprietary operating system. Conventional operating systems control and schedule computer processes for execution, perform memory management, provide file system, networking, I/O services, and provide a user interface, such as a graphical user interface (“GUI”), among other things.

The exemplary computing system 700 may include one or more commonly available input/output (I/O) devices and interfaces 710, such as a keyboard, mouse, touchpad, and printer. In one embodiment, the I/O devices and interfaces 710 include one or more display devices, such as a monitor, that allows the visual presentation of data to a user. More particularly, a display device provides for the presentation of GUIs, application software data, and multimedia presentations, for example. The computing system 700 may also include one or more multimedia devices 740, such as speakers, video cards, graphics accelerators, and microphones, for example.

In the embodiment of FIG. 7, the I/O devices and interfaces 710 provide a communication interface to various external devices. In the illustrated embodiment, the computing system 700 is electronically coupled to a network 160, which comprises one or more of a LAN, WAN, and/or the Internet, for example, via a wired, wireless, or combination of wired and wireless, communication link 715. The network 160 communicates with various computing devices and/or other electronic devices via wired or wireless communication links.

According to FIG. 7, information is provided to the computing system 700 over the network 160 from one or more data sources including, for example, the financial entity 762, authentication provider 763. The information supplied by the various data sources may include an authentication request, notification of an authentication request, a request to open an account, a request for credit data, and/or other information, such as credit data, personal information, application information, and/or other like data, for example. In addition to the devices that are illustrated in FIG. 7, the network 160 may communicate with other data sources or other computing devices, such as a requesting entity associated with the financial entity. In addition, the data sources may include one or more internal and/or external data sources. In some embodiments, one or more of the databases or data sources may be implemented using a relational database, such as Sybase, Oracle, CodeBase and Microsoft® SQL Server as well as other types of databases such as, for example, a flat file database, an entity-relationship database, and object-oriented database, and/or a record-based database.

A consumer computing device 764 may be connected to the network 160 and used by a user to receive and respond to alerts provided by the computing system 700. The consumer computing device 764 may be a desktop computer, a mobile computer, or any other mobile device such as a mobile phone or other similar handheld computing devices. The consumer computing device 764 may include the same or similar components to those discussed above with reference to the computing system 700.

In the embodiment of FIG. 7, the computing system 700 also includes an alert module 750 that may be stored in the mass storage device 720 as executable software codes that are executed by the CPU 705. This module may include, by way of example, components, such as software components, object-oriented software components, class components and task components, processes, functions, attributes, procedures, subroutines, segments of program code, drivers, firmware, microcode, circuitry, data, databases, data structures, tables, arrays, and variables. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, the computing system 700 is configured to execute the alert module 750 in order to receive indication of an authentication request, identify contact information for consumers, transmit alerts to the consumers, receive feedback from the consumers regarding the provided alerts, and/or provide notification of an unauthorized authentication request or account opening request to a requesting entity, as well as any other functionality described elsewhere in this specification.

In general, the word “module,” as used herein, refers to logic embodied in hardware or firmware, or to a collection of software instructions, possibly having entry and exit points, written in a programming language, such as, for example, Java, Lua, C or C++. A software module may be compiled and linked into an executable program, installed in a dynamic link library, or may be written in an interpreted programming language such as, for example, BASIC, Perl, or Python. It will be appreciated that software modules may be callable from other modules or from themselves, and/or may be invoked in response to detected events or interrupts. Software modules configured for execution on computing devices may be provided on a computer readable medium, such as a compact disc, digital video disc, flash drive, or any other tangible medium. Such software code may be stored, partially or fully, on a memory device of the executing computing device, such as the computing system 700, for execution by the computing device. Software instructions may be embedded in firmware, such as an EPROM. It will be further appreciated that hardware modules may be comprised of connected logic units, such as gates and flip-flops, and/or may be comprised of programmable units, such as programmable gate arrays or processors. The modules described herein are preferably implemented as software modules, but may be represented in hardware or firmware. Generally, the modules described herein refer to logical modules that may be combined with other modules or divided into sub-modules despite their physical organization or storage.

Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or “may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certain features, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are in any way required for one or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without user input or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps are included or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.

Any process descriptions, elements, or blocks in the flow diagrams described herein and/or depicted in the attached figures should be understood as potentially representing modules, segments, or portions of code which include one or more executable instructions for implementing specific logical functions or steps in the process. Alternate implementations are included within the scope of the embodiments described herein in which elements or functions may be deleted, executed out of order from that shown or discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending on the functionality involved, as would be understood by those skilled in the art.

All of the methods and processes described above may be embodied in, and partially or fully automated via, software code modules executed by one or more general purpose computers. The methods may be executed on the computing devices in response to execution of software instructions or other executable code read from a tangible, non-transitory computer readable medium. A tangible computer readable medium is a data storage device that can store data that is readable by a computer system. Examples of computer readable mediums include read-only memory, random-access memory, other volatile or non-volatile memory devices, CD-ROMs, magnetic tape, flash drives, and optical data storage devices.

Although this disclosure has been described in terms of certain example embodiments and applications, other embodiments and applications that are apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, including embodiments and applications that do not provide all of the benefits described herein, are also within the scope of this disclosure.

All publications and patent applications mentioned in this specification are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A computing system comprising: a data store that stores contact information associated with one or more individuals enrolled in a monitoring service; and a computing device, comprising at least one physical processor, that is in communication with the data store and that configured to: receive, by the computing device, information identifying an individual for whom an authentication request has been received in association with a request from a requesting entity that received the information in real time from a person alleging to be the individual, wherein the received information includes a vendor identifier identifying the requesting entity and wherein the person alleging to be the individual is present in real time at a place of business of the vendor; retrieve, by the computing device, contact information associated with the individual from the data store; retrieve, by the computing device, vendor contact information associated with the requesting entity based on the vendor identifier; send, from the computing device, an electronic notification to a mobile device of the individual based at least in part on the retrieved contact information, wherein the electronic notification provides notification to the individual that an authentication request was received regarding the individual and includes at least a vendor name from the retrieved vendor contact information, wherein the electronic notification provides the individual with a selectable option to indicate whether the person alleging to be the individual is actually the individual, wherein the electronic notification is provided as a push alert delivered via an application executed on the mobile device, wherein sending the electronic notification as the push alert causes the mobile device to launch the application executed on the mobile device, wherein the application causes display of the vendor name and the selectable option; receive, by the computing device as a result of a selection of the selectable option in the electronic notification, an indication that the person alleging to be the individual is not actually the individual; and in response to receiving the indication, substantially in real time after receiving the indication, and substantially while the person is still at the place of business, providing a notification to the requesting entity indicating fraudulent use of identity information of the individual in association with the authentication request, wherein the notification is provided based at least in part on the retrieved vendor contact information.
 2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein a financial entity maintains financial accounts for the vendor, wherein the computing device receives indication of the authentication request from the financial entity, and wherein the computing system is further configured to determine the requesting entity based at least in part on the financial entity.
 3. The computing system of claim 2, wherein the requesting entity is determined based at least in part by retrieving data that associates the financial entity with one or more vendors or service providers associated with the financial entity.
 4. The computing system of claim 2, wherein the financial entity comprises a financial institution that maintains credit accounts for a plurality of individuals on behalf of two or more vendors.
 5. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the request is to open a financial account for the individual.
 6. The computing system of claim 5, wherein the financial account is a store credit card associated with the vendor, wherein the vendor is a retailer.
 7. The computing system of claim 5, wherein the financial account for the individual comprises a credit account.
 8. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the vendor is a service provider.
 9. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the electronic notification is provided as a text message sent to a phone number associated with the mobile device.
 10. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the computing system is further configured to provide a default notification of approval or denial to the requesting entity when the individual does not respond to the electronic notification within a certain time period.
 11. The computing system of claim 1, wherein providing the notification to the requesting entity comprises transmitting the notification to a POS terminal within a retail store.
 12. A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, by one or more computing devices that are configured with specific executable instructions, information identifying an individual for whom an authentication request has been received in association with a request from a requesting entity that received the information in real time from a person alleging to be the individual, wherein the received information includes a vendor identifier identifying the requesting entity; retrieving, by the one or more computing devices, contact information associated with the individual from a data store, wherein the retrieved contact information includes a phone number associated with a mobile device of the individual, wherein the contact information is retrieved based at least in part by matching information stored in the data store with the information identifying the individual received in association with the authentication request; retrieving, by the one or more computing devices, vendor contact information associated with the requesting entity based on the vendor identifier; sending, by the one or more computing devices, an electronic notification to the mobile device of the individual based at least in part on the retrieved contact information, wherein the electronic notification provides notification to the individual that an authentication request was received regarding the individual and includes at least a vendor name from the retrieved vendor contact information, wherein the electronic notification provides the individual with a selectable option to indicate whether the person alleging to be the individual is actually the individual; receiving, by the one or more computing devices as a result of a selection of the selectable option in the electronic notification, an indication that the person alleging to be the individual is not actually the individual; and in response to receiving the indication, and substantially in real time after receiving the indication, providing a notification to the requesting entity indicating fraudulent use of identity information of the individual in association with the authentication request, wherein the notification is provided based at least in part on the retrieved vendor contact information.
 13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein providing the notification to the requesting entity comprises sending an electronic message.
 14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein providing the notification to the requesting entity comprises automatically placing a phone call.
 15. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein a financial entity maintains financial accounts for the requesting entity, and further comprising determining the requesting entity based at least in part on the financial entity.
 16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the requesting entity is determined based at least in part by retrieving data that associates the financial entity with one or more vendors or service providers associated with the financial entity.
 17. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the electronic notification is sent to the individual based at least in part on a determination that the individual is enrolled in a notification service.
 18. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the electronic notification is provided as a push alert delivered via an application executed on the mobile device, wherein sending the electronic notification as the push alert causes the mobile device to launch the application executed on the mobile device, wherein the application causes display of the vendor name and the selectable option to indicate whether the person alleging to be the individual is actually the individual.
 19. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions configured to cause a processor of a computing system to perform operations comprising: receiving information identifying an individual for whom an authentication request has been received in association with a request from a requesting entity that received the information in real time from a person alleging to be the individual, wherein the received information includes a vendor identifier identifying the requesting entity; retrieving contact information associated with the individual from a data store, wherein the retrieved contact information includes a phone number associated with a mobile device of the individual, wherein the contact information is retrieved based at least in part by matching information stored in the data store with the information identifying the individual received in association with the authentication request; retrieving vendor contact information associated with the requesting entity based on the vendor identifier; sending an electronic notification to the mobile device of the individual based at least in part on the retrieved contact information, wherein the electronic notification provides notification to the individual that an authentication request was received regarding the individual and includes at least a vendor name from the retrieved vendor contact information, wherein the electronic notification provides the individual with a selectable option to indicate whether the person alleging to be the individual is actually the individual; receiving, based on a selection of the selectable option in the electronic notification, an indication that the person alleging to be the individual is not actually the individual; and in response to receiving the indication, and substantially in real time after receiving the indication, providing a notification to the requesting entity indicating fraudulent use of identity information of the individual in association with the authentication request, wherein the notification is provided based at least in part on the retrieved vendor contact information.
 20. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the electronic notification is provided as a push alert delivered via an application executed on the mobile device, wherein sending the electronic notification as the push alert causes the mobile device to launch the application executed on the mobile device, wherein the application causes display of the vendor name and the selectable option to indicate whether the person alleging to be the individual is actually the individual. 